I Let Him Go review: A biography of the real James Bulger from mother Denise Fergus

4 / 5 stars

I Let Him Go by Denise Fergus (Blink, £16.99)

FEBRUARY marks the 25th anniversary of the abduction and horrific murder of Liverpool toddler James Bulger by two 10-year-old boys – Robert Thompson and Jon Venables – in a case which appalled the nation.

James' father told the story in his own book in 2013, this is mother Denise Fergus' first account

James’ father Ralph told his story in a book called My James in 2013 but this is the first time Denise Fergus, as James’ mother has been known since her remarriage in 1998, has given her account of her two-year-old son’s murder.

This is partly to tell the world about “the real James… not the media’s version of James Bulger, but the baby I gave birth to”.

And a vivid picture emerges of a “cheeky ray of sunshine… fizzing with life” – but also, tragically, of a trusting little boy.

The title refers to the fatal moment when, while paying in a butcher’s shop, Denise let go of James’ hand to open her purse.

Related articles

A vivid picture emerges of a “cheeky ray of sunshine… fizzing with life”

In that instant, he was gone.

I Let Him Go gives us a shell-shocked mother’s account of the agonising events that followed, from combing the shopping centre in anguish for her missing son, to his killers’ trial.

The story is no less distressing to read 25 years later but this book compounds the sadness when we read of the subsequent, and entirely understandable, unravelling of the Bulgers’ marriage and learn that Denise had already given birth to a stillborn daughter before James.

Happily, her second marriage has provided love, stability and a degree of healing, as well as three sons.

So there is more to I Let Him Go than a distressing rerun of a shocking murder. One of the strengths of the book is the thoughtful and dignified 25-year hindsight that Denise brings to her story.

And her account of raising her sons, barely able to let them out of her sight, is particularly honest and affecting.

I Let Him Go has also been given sober prescience by news of the arrest of Jon Venables on child pornography charges for the second time.

This adds weight to Denise’s firm contention that James’ killers have not been rehabilitated in custody as the Home Office asserts and she continues to campaign for the rights of victims in her son’s name.

Whatever you may think about Thompson and Venables’ sentence, the juvenile equivalent of life imprisonment, or their release after eight years, this book will leave you thinking long and hard about murder’s lifelong consequences on those left behind.